The organic production system is an important strategy, compatible with sustainable agriculture, avoiding the use of chemical compounds, limiting the intensity of production and providing controls along the entire chain of production. The aim of this study is to compare conventional and organic poultry production in terms of emergy analysis. The main differences in the two systems were the emergy cost for poultry feed and for cleaning/sanitization of the buildings between successive productive cycles. In both production systems the poultry feed represented more than 50% of the emergy flow. Regarding the agronomic phase, it was shown that almost all the organic crops, avoiding chemical fertilizers and pesticides, saved around 60% emergy. The emergetic costs for housing of the birds were very similar in both systems. Relating the emergy results with productive performance it is possible to show that, although the annual productive performance was much lower in organic than in conventional (À206%), transformity of organic poultry was around 10% lower. Comparison of the organic poultry system with a conventional one from the viewpoint of sustainability showed that all the emergy-based indicators are in favour of the organic farming system with a higher efficiency in transforming the available inputs in the final product, a higher level of renewable inputs, a higher level of local inputs and a lower density of energy and matter flows. #

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This paper shows an application of the emergy analysis to the waste management system in the Province of Cagliari, Italy. It aims to consider the importance of waste management within a territorial system by assessing the environmental cost and gain due, directly and indirectly, to waste management processes. It also aims to investigate different steps of this process looking for potential critical points and available strategies for a sustainable waste management in its three phases of waste gathering, waste treatment and waste disposing. A landfill and an incinerator, located within the Province, are studied in order to consider their own environmental efficiency and their role in the waste management process. The emergy method (spelt with an "m") is based on the assessment of all the inputs that supply the waste management system and its processes (emergy means energy memory). The expected outcomes are in the form of a comprehensive balance that shows the general behaviour of the system and its parts. Through the emergy synthesis, flows of energy and matter that are used within the process of waste management in the Province of Cagliari, are assessed by a common unit, namely the solar energy joule, and compared to each other. This is performed in order to evaluate how an integrated system including incinerator and dumps works in order to make choices and to achieve a sustainable waste management plan.